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IEEJ Transactions on Fundamentals and Materials

Recent Progress of Superconducting Integrated Circuit Technologies Challenging the Limits in Low Power Consumption

Nobuyuki Yoshikawa

Published Dec 31, 2013• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Superconducting logic circuits, which utilize a single flux quantum as logical bit information, have outstanding properties as a logic circuit in terms of power consumption and operation speed. In this paper, recent progress of superconducting integrated circuit technologies, which aim the reduction of the power consumption of high-end computing systems and have potential to approach the physical limit of energy consumption in computation, will be reviewed.

DOI
10.1541/ieejfms.134.14

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Superconducting logic circuits, which utilize a single flux quantum as logical bit information, have outstanding properties as a logic circuit in terms of power consumption and operation speed. In this paper, recent progress of superconducting integrated circuit technologies, which aim the reduction of the power consumption of high-end computing systems and have potential to approach the physical limit of energy consumption in computation, will be reviewed.
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Single flux quantum (SFQ) logic circuits, in which a single flux quantum is used for an information carrier, have a possibility to open a new digital system operated with over 100 GHz clock frequencies at extremely low power dissipations. Recently, much progress in basic technologies for designing SFQ circuits and operating circuits with high speeds has been done. By taking advancements in these designing tools, circuits including more than several thousands junctions easily operated with the clock frequency of more than several tens GHz. Applications of SFQ circuits such as high performance computers, high end router and high end servers are being developed in the world taking advantages of the high through-put nature and the low power dissipation of the SFQ logic.
Design and manufacturing of superconductive electronics have been evolving over the past three decades with significant progress made in related fields. Rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) logic circuits have become popular among superconductive logic families and its energy-efficient variants (ERSFQ and eSFQ) have shown promise as an ultra lowpower and high-speed circuit fabric. SFQ circuits have been demonstrated at tens of GHz with an energy consumption of an attojoule per gate. There are many differences between SFQ and conventional CMOS circuits. SFQ logic circuits are based on the manipulation of the quantized magnetic flux pulses. Most of the logic gates are sequential in nature requiring the clock to be distributed to every logic gate. SFQ logic gates have no gain and hence splitters are needed to drive multiple fanouts. Design and successful demonstration of a controllable superconducting switch and a compact reliable memory element have evaded researchers so far. This paper starts by describing key differences between SFQ logic and conventional CMOS and concludes by listing key challenges that must be overcome to achieve the very large scale integration of SFQ circuits and make the demonstration of a superconductive CPU a reality.
Single-flux quantum logic (SFQ) circuits, in which a flux quantum is used as an information carrier, have the possibility for opening the door to a new digital system operated at over 100-GHz clock frequency at extremely low power dissipation. The SFQ logic system is a so-called pulse logic, which is completely different from the level logic for semiconductors like CMOS, so circuit design technologies for SFQ logic circuits have to be newly developed. Recently, much progress in basic technologies for designing SFQ circuits and operating circuits at high speeds has been made. With advances in these design tools, large-scale circuits including more than several thousand junctions can be easily operated with the clock frequency of more than several tens of gigahertz. High-end routers and high-end computers are possible applications of SFQ logic circuits because of their high throughput nature and the low power dissipation of SFQ logic. In this paper, recent advances of SFQ circuit design technologies and recent developments of switches for high-end routers and microprocessors for high-end computers that are considered possible applications for SFQ logic will be described.
In recent years, the development of superconducting digital electronics has been making rapid progress. A variety of digital circuits based on Single-Flux Quantum (SFQ) device technology such as high-speed switching circuits for router systems and high-speed sampling oscilloscope systems have been demonstrated. These achievements have been mainly based on the NEDO project, “Development of Low-power Superconducting Network Devices”. This paper describes these recent progress and future prospects of superconducting digital electronics.
Superconductive electronics offers a unique combination of high bandwidth and low power for mission critical hardware such as digital processors at 20 to 100 GHz, microwatt per bit analog to digital converters, large digital switches at multi-Gb/s data rates, and low noise parametric amplifiers. This cryogenic technology, typically operating at a few degrees or a few tens of degrees Kelvin, depends upon the unique physics of superconducting materials such as Nb, NbN, and YBaCuO, and the fundamental circuit element, the Josephson junction (JJ) to create unique architectures of unprecedented design efficiency and performance. These circuits are based on the single flux quantum (SFQ) logic family, a technology that has no parallel in semiconductor electronics. Digital data is transmitted by voltage pulses with amplitude less than 1 mV, but at extremely high speeds. Individual gates have been operated as high as 370 GHz. In this paper, we present a brief overview of superconductive digital technology, describe some recent circuits, and discuss how the challenges to superconductive technology are being met, including the use of multi-chip module (MCM) technology, and the potential use of III-V HBT and HEMT circuits to provide interface drivers and amplifiers, possibly operated cryogenically.